Francisco Ortiz Franco Murder
In 2004, Francisco Ortiz Franco—a Zeta cofounder and contributing editor who specialized in legal issues—began to write about drug trafficking. At around this time, Blancornelas wanted to remove bylines from Zeta's most dangerous stories, but was persuaded not to by Ortiz, who wished his to continue to run.
On June 22, 2004, Ortiz was shot three times at the wheel of his car by masked gunmen in a drive-by shooting, in full view of his son and daughter (aged 9 and 11). Federal prosecutors later linked the murder to the Tijuana Cartel of the Arellano Félix family, with Ortiz's coverage of the organization as the probable motive. In April 2011, Zeta's new editor Adela Navarro Bello ran a front-page story stating that the newspaper had learned from cartel enforcer Luis Alberto Salazar Vega that cartel head Javier Arellano Félix had personally ordered the murder after Ortiz had published photographs of the organization's members.
Read more about this topic: Zeta (magazine)
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